Queen of Jordan responds to Aylan cartoon
Queen Rania of Jordan condemned the recent cartoon published by Charlie Hebdo depicting the Syrian refugee toddler Aylan as a molester in Europe. In response, she published a cartoon depicting Aylan as a doctor, through the Osama Hajjaj cartoon initiative, which depicts people's lives in Jordan and political developments in West Asia. The cartoon was published with text in English, Arabic and French.
Aylan Kurdi was a three-year-old Syrian boy of Kurdish ethnicity. On 2 September 2015, Kurdi and his family boarded a small plastic boat which capsized shortly after leaving the Turkish coast. The accident resulted in his death and in the iconic picture of him lying face down in the sand by the beach, a photograph that came to define the Syrian refugee crisis.
Kurdi's last picture has been credited with causing a surge in donations to charities helping migrants and refugees, with one charity, the Migrant offshore Aid Station recording a 15-fold increase in donations within 24 hours of its publication.
A group of over 1000 inebriated men, sexually assaulted hundreds of women during the new year's eve celebration outside Cologne railway station in Germany. Police registered over 500 cases of sexual assault and 2 cases of rape. The victims claimed that the perpetrators of the attack appeared to be of "North African or Arabic" origin, raising suspicions that refugees may have committed the act.
Charlie Hebdo is a satirical French weekly magazine that publishes cartoons, reports and jokes on politics and religion. Its offices were fire-bombed in 2011 after they named their November edition "Charia Hebdo" and listed Prophet Mohammed as the editor-in-chief. In 2015, Islamist gunmen stormed their offices in Paris and killed 12 people and wounded 11 others over its cartoons mocking Prophet Mohammed.
French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo has stirred fresh controversy after releasing yet another "offensive" cartoon, this time about the EU refugee crisis and the cologne attacks. The cartoon, depicts a grown up Aylan Kurdi (the Syrian toddler who drowned and died off the Turkish coast), chasing a woman. The title reads: "What would little Aylan have grown up to be?" - "Ass-groper in Germany."
"I hope people respect our family's pain. It's a big loss to us. We're not the same anymore after this tragedy. We're trying to forget a little bit and move on with our life. But to hurt us again, it's not fair," - Tima Kurdi
